My journey to becoming an Ultra Runner and Ironman

It’s been a while since I posted a weekly rundown, the week of my ultramarathon seems like a good time to bring it back to life. The last I updated this I ran the Desert Rats Trail Marathon since then I have been trying to keep my milage up but I haven’t gotten the time in that I would like.

Last week I didn’t mean to taper for my 50k, I was hoping to keep my milage high, but my mental game wasn’t strong and with summer semester starting I let it slip. Just five weeks until Leadville Silver Rush so I have about 3 weeks to keep the pressure on, then taper.

Monday: On Memorial Day Cory and I decided to take Cannon for a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park. We hiked up to Emerald lake, it was beautiful, but the trails were mostly still covered in snow. I was so glad that Cory thought to pack our Yak-tracks.

Tuesday: 6.7 mile run a 1,000 meter swim, I am so happy that our neighborhood pool has opened for the summer.

Trying to decide if I remember how to swim…

Wednesday: Nothing, sad……but it was the first class of the semester, which is always crazy so I am going to give myself a pass.

Thursday: 3 miles on the treadmill, nothing exciting.

Friday: Nothing again, my father had hip replacement surgery, everything went well but I wanted to visit him and prep for my race.

Saturday: North Fork 50k!!! About 33 miles of gorgeous miles. More details coming soon in a race report so for now I will just say that this is an amazing race and you should totally do it! The weather was perfect and I had a great time.

Sunday: Nothing again, we spent the day celebrating Mother’s Day with my mom. She was off riding bikes in Tuscany in May so we all celebrated her in June.

Marathon week has come and gone! I am a little late getting this recap up, but I wanted to get this last week posted to finish this marathon training cycle. Race week was pretty uneventful and I felt flat and lazy. I couldn’t wait for the week to be over so I could get out there and race!

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Monday: Rest day

Tuesday: Evening 4 mile run, trying to keep things light and easy

Wednesday: Another evening run after Cannon went to sleep for the night

Thursday: Quick 2 miles before work, felt heavy and slow, taper is the worst!

Friday: Travel Day! My mom and I headed to the salon for race day nails in the morning (she ran Boston!) then we packed up the car and headed west towards Fruita. Cannon is a champ in the car but we do have to make a lot more stops. I unfortunately was too distracted by a cute baby and did a terrible job hydrating. regardless we made it to town with plenty of time to check into our hotel, go to packet pick-up and grab dinner.

When you have a king size bed to yourself….

Saturday: Race day!!!! The course was challenging and so so so beautiful. More details in a race report soon. After the race we jumped into the car and headed home.

Sunday: Full rest day! My legs have definitely felt worse after previous marathons but driving for five hours after running didn’t help the situation. I enjoyed being lazy and eating lots of candy.

Now to start building back up and getting serious about Leadville training. Sunday long runs will soon be Saturday AND Sunday long runs…

Week 15 of marathon training is done and in the books, now less than a week until race day and I can’t wait! It’s been a little difficult to cut back on running this last week. I had gotten into mindset of trying to run as much as possible so it’s hard to remind myself that it is important to cut back and let my body absorb the modifications.

Friday: Cory and I decided it would be nice to have a morning coffee shop date with Cannon so we made a plan to include running and coffee (could it get better???). I ran form home to the coffee shop (7 miles) and Cory drove there with Cannon. We had so much fun hanging out with Cannon and drinking amazing coffee at Cannon Mine Coffee. When we were done Cory ran to work to get his miles in while I drove with Cannon. We are thinking of making this an every other week(ish) tradition.

Saturday: Full rest day, we took the extra time to go meet the Easter Bunny for the first time. I was a little worried that Cannon would be scared of the giant bunny but he had a great time.

Sunday: 15 miles at Heil Ranch in Boulder, it was a bit windy but still a perfect day on the trails. The miles ticked by easily and I loved being out on the trails. Starting to get excited for my marathon.

Totals:

Running: Just 36.7 miles now to just not do anything stupid before Saturday….

Weeks are speeding by and now we are just 6 weeks out from race day! Week 10 was a bit of a cut back week as my legs were feeling a thrashed and I wanted to be ready to tackle peak training. The next 4 weeks will be peak marathon training with more race specific training. On the race website the first sentence on the course description says “These are challenging courses”…..GULP! I will admit I am nervous, I feel like I will be more than ready to run 26.2 miles, but the 3500 feet of gain is giving me concern..so it’s time for more hills!

Monday: Quick 2.5 mile shake out run after Cory got home from work and strength training focus on core work.

Tuesday: Strength work while Cannon was napping and 3 miles of intervals on the treadmill.

Wednesday: Wednesdays are my mid-week long run day so I got a little over 8 miles in before Cory went to work, it was VERY cold and I was a little underdressed…brrr.

Full body strength training in the home gym in the evening.

Thursday: 5.6 miles in the morning, trying to go really easy.

Friday: Double run day! I don’t always have long amounts of time that I can be out for a run so running twice in a day is the only way I can get longer milage in on week days .I started the day with 5.75 miles in the morning and 3.2 miles in the evening.

Saturday: Cory, Cannon and I got out for an early run before a busy Saturday. I love when we all get to run together. In the afternoon we got to enjoy amazing 75 degree weather while celebrating Cannon’s cousins first birthday. It was so much fun!

Cannon bundled up for fun winter running

Sunday: I decided to cut my long run WAY back to 10.75 miles. It was a nice to go to Cannon’s swim lesson in the afternoon without noodle legs!

Week 7 flew by, and after this week I will be half way to Desert Rats Trail Marathon. It was the start of exams last week so things were a bit crazy, there was not enough strength training but I hit the minimum goal of 30 miles for the week.

Monday: Just a quick 2 mile run on the treadmill to shake off the dust.

Tuesday: My legs were still feeling heavy and stiff so I did a little interval run on the treadmill. After a 5 minute warm up I ran 1 min hard 1 minute easy for a total of 20 minutes, then cooled down. It did the trick and my legs felt much better after.

Wednesday: Early morning 7 mile run in the hood.

Thursday: 3.2 mile evening run, I would really like to get in some longer runs mid week, but I am just glad to be getting out after Cannon goes to bed.

Friday: Friday got away from me quickly, so I decided to jump on the treadmill for a climbing workout before heading to bed.

Saturday: I moved my long run to Saturday since there was snow in the forecast for Saturday night/Sunday morning. I decided to keep it simple and just do laps in the neighborhood. Cory and Cannon joined me for the first 5 miles then I completed 10 more on my own.

This week was mainly focused on running (more on that in a separate post).

Monday: A quick 2.42 mile run with my favorite little buddy in the running stroller. As much as I love our BOB stroller it is much more of a workout to run with it!

Tuesday: 3 miles on the treadmill with 1 minute tempo intervals, this felt so good! It always helps make the time fly on the treadmill when I have work to do =) After my run I was able to squeeze in some quick core and lower body exercises before nap time was over. In the evening I joined my mom for a swim. It was SOOOOO nice to swim. Cannon has been fighting naps so he is often over tired in the afternoon and a little crabby so getting into a calm, quite pool really helped me find my happy place.

Wednesday: 21 day fix upper body strength workout

Thursday: 2.14 mile run (outside, YAY) and full body strength workout

Friday: It was cold and snowy on Friday and my phone died from cold immediately after taking this picture but the solo miles were so enjoyable. Now that I am a mom I relish my time to get out and run so much more. I am so grateful that Cory is always supportive and happy to take on baby duty (in fact, I think he loves the time alone with Cannon).

Saturday: Saturday was super busy so I jumped on the treadmill for 2.6 miles. I kinda felt awful, it was just one of those days that my legs felt heavy and hard to move, there was lots of walking to warm up and cool down. Somedays are better than others, and I was glad to at least get moving a little. I love watching Ginger Runner films while running. Reminds me that putting in the work now will allow me to enjoy hours on the trails when summer gets here.

Sunday: 7 mile run with both my boys, it’s so nice when we get to run together. It’s such a great time for us to talk while we get some miles in.

Totals:

Running: 21.3 miles

Swimming: 1200 yds (just once, but I am working on getting a pool I can go to more regularly)

Strength: 3 sessions

As always it’s a work in progress, I am hoping to try some new strength training classes this week, a spin class and get in the pool more if I am lucky!

I am still working on getting in all my workouts as planned. They key seems to be determination and flexibility. It also means 4am alarms, lost sleep and a very supportive husband. I am still committed to building strength while I continue to contemplate long term plans.

Monday: Dirty Thirty strength training

Tuesday: 3 mile run and Upper Body Fix

Wednesday: 2.5 mile run

Thursday: 3.6 mile run and Lower Body Fix from 21 Day Fix

Gorgeous fall running will never get old

Friday: 2.5 mile run

Saturday: family walk and fun at our neighborhood fall fest

I know which pumpkin I would pick!

Sunday: 7.5 mile long run and 1300 yd swim (so good to be back in the pool!)

Total: About 19 miles of running and 5.5 hours of training. It’s a work in progress, hoping to get my training time up to at least 12 hours a week in the next month or so as I continue to figure out how to juggle everything.

Last weeks training did not go completely as planned, we still have a sick baby (boo) and birthday celebrations were had (yay). I am hoping this week will be a little bit less eventful and more consistent with the workouts. Here is how last week shook out:

Monday: Rest Day

Tuesday: 4 mile run

Wednesday: Upper and Lower body fix from 21 day fix

Thursday: 2.5 mile run in the morning and Pilates Fix in the evening

Friday: Core workout

Saturday: family hike in Nederland and Dirty Thirty strength workout

Sunday: Nothin’….was supposed to be a long run and yoga but the day got away from me and I ate cake instead (not to worry, I got run and yoga in today 😉

Total: ~5 hours of training, definitely an easy week. I am determined to make it to the pool this week!

2011 was a good year for me, it is the first year in a long time that I didn’t have a significant change. But I did reach some significant goals of running a marathon and completing a half ironman. It was fun to share these accomplishments with my hubby.

January started off just the way I like it with a half marathon on new years day

I traveled to NYC for work

And Cory ran Frosey’s Frozen 5 Mile race while I cheered him on because I had food poisoning

In February It snowed a lot and we ran a lot while training for our first marathon

March took me to Portland to visit my parents

and Cory and I ran the Boulder Sprig Half Marathon

In April Cory and I ran a lot!

May 1st we ran the Colorado Marathon

And we went back to Oregon for a weeding and some quality family time

June was a big month for us we completed our first olympic distance triathlon and traveled (back) to Oregon for our first half ironman. It was so much fun I hope to race Pacific Crest again someday, unfortunately it is the same weekend as IMCDA . We also celebrated 5 years of marriage.

July was a lot of travel for me, I went to San Diego for work

I work hard people!

Then Cory and I headed to Oregon (see a pattern here?) for another wedding

July also came with a knee injury that kept me from running for many months. This was a dark part of the year but I healed and will work very hard to make 2012 injury free

In August we celebrated Cory’s birthday and my parents moving to Colorado

September was busy with two triathlons, a half ironman and the only sprint triathlon of the season

I went to Atlanta for the AZA conference

We celebrated my brother’s and my birthday

October is always one of my favorite months. Cory and and ran 2 5ks and enjoyed lots of fun fall activities.

November was pretty good, but it FLEW by! This time of year always goes by in a flash and it makes me a little sad. Good thing Christmas is around the corner to lift my spirits!

The main thing that happened in November was that Cory and I started our Ironman training. So far so good, but we were just in the preparation phase. We start Base Building next month and I am sure things will get more intense (at least I hope they will, I am ready to kick it up a notch).

In November Cory and I drove from Oregon to Colorado

I died my hair brown (I asked for brown and ended up just darker blond and it’s washing out even lighter, I think it’s a sign that I am just meant to be a blond) oh and got bangs…this is earth shattering news, I know.

I enjoyed MANY red starbucks cups

I discovered Cafe Rio salads, so delicious!

I got reacquainted with my trainer, we are going to be really good friends in the coming months.

Keep track of workouts better. I am participating in the Holiday Booty Buster Challenge and the Pile on the Miles so I need to keep track! Check, I have a super nerdy spreadsheet set up.

Run at least 70 miles check! over 85

Swim for at least 12 hours Nope, closer to 8 hours, DOH! need to get in the pool

Bike for at least 20 hours Check! lots of time in the saddle this year, it was a mistake not to do more last year.

Do my PT exercises every night No, But my PT said I didn’t have to so I am ok with it.

Do abs and arms exercises three times a week YUP!

Eat healthy (except on Thanksgiving, on that day anything goes!) Mostly yes. I actually dropped weight this month, I am happy about this. I am getting closer to me “fighting weight” but this is it’s own post.

I am happy with what I accomplished in November and here are my goals for December:

Have fun with friends and family before training gets too crazy

Continue to eat well 90% of the time (Christmas, and Christmas eve don’t count)